Gay marriage suddenly defining issue for Romney

"He's not going to hide from the issues that this debate will present, and that puts him in good stead with the voters," Gray said. "It gives Romney even more of a platform to criticize the Legislature as typical politicians who are out for themselves and not for the will of the people."

As Romney knows well, issues of gay rights and gay marriage can be politically explosive. Last year, his Democratic rival for the governor's office, Shannon P. O'Brien, saw her campaign battered after she surprisingly endorsed gay marriage a few weeks before the election, after months of saying she supported only civil unions.

In his 1994 U.S. Senate race, Romney found himself in a political firestorm after several people who attended a gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Romney described homosexuality as "perverse" and said he was "appalled" by gays in the congregation. Romney denied using the word "perverse," but said he advised against non-marital sex — both homosexual and heteresexual — in accordance with church teachings.

And, in last year's campaign, Romney took heat for serving on the board of the Boy Scouts, which excludes gay men from serving as Scout leaders and for having donated $1 million in 1998 to Brigham Young University, which bans homosexual conduct on its campus. Asked about that in the campaign, he said he would support domestic partnership benefits, at one point saying they would become a "hallmark of my leadership as governor."

Romney often bristles at suggestions that his personal religious beliefs have any bearing on his public policy positions. Yet whatever the root of his feelings, the governor views gay marriage as a "gut issue" that he cannot support in accordance with his own moral code, Gray said.

Because he believes the majority of Massachusetts residents agree with him on the issue, he wants to amend the state constitution to reflect that, Gray said. Romney has broader goals in mind, and will use this opportunity to establish further rights for gay couples, Fehrnstrom said.

"At the end of the day, same-sex couples will end up with more rights and benefits than they previously enjoyed," he said.